Airport, Estonia, Legislation, Strike, Transport

Head of the pilots trade union, the Estonian Airline Transport Pilots' Association (ATPA), Rauno Menning and Estonian Air's board chairman Jan Palmér had a confidential meeting Wednesday evening, avoiding publicity, in order to reach an agreement on the collective labour agreement that has become the cause of the dispute.

"It is our will that there wouldn't come a strike," Menning said Wednesday afternoon, before the start of the talks quite unexpectedly. Right before Christmas, he shocked passengers and employers with the decision to start a strike on January 7 to force the company to conclude a collective labour agreement suitable for pilots.

"We wish today (yesterday – ed.) to meet with board chairman Jan Palmér," Menning said now. "A new collective labour agreement, even a temporary agreement, would enable to give up the strike plan," he said.

Menning rejected the negotiations offered by State Arbitrator Henn Pärn with the management of Estonian Air, declaring that he wants to achieve an agreement without mediators.

Eesti Päevaleht could not get a comment from Estonian Air's manager Palmér but the company confirmed that the negotiations took place.

The pilots say that the cause of the planned strike is the employers, Estonian Air AS cancelling the collective labour agreement, concluded in 2008, last August, so that it comes in force six months later or on February 9, 2013, and offering the pilots a new agreement, that would give up the so called age-listing system, which prefers staff member who have worked longer in the company.

"If the strike comes, Estonian Air ends operating,” says Tallinn Airport board member Erik Sakkov. "We have no reason to believe that other carriers would start flying on Estonian Air's routes when it goes bankrupt, meaning that instead of the nearly 40 destinations last summer, just 9 will remain."